Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Skilled Facilitator

By Scott J. Pearson | October 6, 2019September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Successfully resolving conflict is one of the most important tasks in management and leadership. Schwarz, a Harvard-educated organizational psychologist, teaches us how to do just this in this well-received book. Its success can be demonstrated by the fact that it now resides in its third edition. (This review only applies to the second edition.) Schwarz tells us how to be not just a facilitator but a skilled facilitator of discussion within organization. He consults with…

Software-Technology

Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software

By Scott J. Pearson | October 1, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

This work was published in 2004 – a lifetime ago for the field of software design. It tackles issues relevant in 2004 but are standard practice today. Its basic message – learn not just the software but also the domain – is an important one, but most of the insights has been absorbed into computer-programming praxis over the last fifteen years. Its strength is in delineating how the programmer is to relate to the domain…

Management-Business Software-Technology

The DevOps Paradox

By Scott J. Pearson | September 28, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

For those in the software industry, DevOps is a word we have encountered in the past few years without knowing precisely what it means. It’s generally a movement to break down silos in between Development teams and Operations teams within organizations – all with an eye to enhance the business. In this work, Viktor Farcic interviews a bunch of people with the primary question, “What is DevOps?” They all center around this same definition. To…

Fiction-Stories Poetry

The Canterbury Tales: A New Unabridged Translation

By Scott J. Pearson | September 19, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is a classic that most high schoolers read excerpts from in high school. Burton Raffel here offers a new, full-length translation. The translation mostly succeeds (at least in oral format) as it conveys the sense of the work fairly well. While reading, it struck me how essentially medieval Chaucer’s setting is. While he is often talked about as one standing at the cusp of an enlightened England, his roots are thoroughly planted…

Management-Business Writing-Communication

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

By Scott J. Pearson | September 17, 2019April 1, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

How does marketing work in an era where things go viral on the Internet and social media dominates our national discourse? Jonah Berger, a professor at the Wharton School of Business, has an understanding of how it can work and a philosophy of how you can use it to promote your work. Using terms like “social currency” and established concepts like social status, he describes how online marketing can work in a way that is…

Management-Business Writing-Communication

The Art of Focused Conversation

By Scott J. Pearson | September 16, 2019April 1, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Have you ever not had the right words to approach a situation at work? This work, from the Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs, explains open-ended ways to approach conversations at work. It does so in a way such that the inquirer acknowledges her/his ignorance with a situation. This essentially post-industrial and postmodern approach allows teams of knowledge workers to appreciate everyone’s wisdom as they come to a consensus. This book is divided into two parts:…

Management-Business

Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense Approach to a Continuous Improvement Strategy

By Scott J. Pearson | September 14, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

This book’s interesting title spawns from the Japanese language, which serves as the nomenclature for the essential concepts conveyed in this text. This book communicates the concept of management which grew out of Japan, was popularized in the 1980s, and served as the philosophy for companies like Toyota. Management texts like this and Deming’s famous fourteen points taught and continue to teach the international business community about running better businesses. The philosophy of this work…

Management-Business Software-Technology

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great

By Scott J. Pearson | September 14, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Techniques called “agile” comprise a more iterative approach to developing software. In many ways, it treats software as an open text instead of a fixed product. Agile development is used in most leading software shops around the world. This book treats a specific element of agile development – the retrospective. After each iteration or release, the team is gathered to discuss the last period of time and to seek improvement for the next time. This…

Fiction-Stories Leadership Management-Business

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

By Scott J. Pearson | September 9, 2019September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

This work straddles the fence between a short novel and a book on business. It covers a helpful topic of five common dysfunctions of a team. Through reading it, I helped identify pits that teams I have participated in have fallen prey to. The story itself is relatively easygoing, if a bit short and superficial. A new CEO faces the scenario where her new form has more cash and more talented leaders, but is underperforming.…

Fiction-Stories

Sanctuary

By Scott J. Pearson | September 8, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Sanctuary, one of Faulkner’s early novels, focuses on the dark side of Southern society in post-Civil-War America. It is one of Faulkner’s more readable works. It’s a more straightforward crime mystery that is still based on the convoluted Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Like many (most/all?) of Faulkner’s characters, they appear aimless and uprooted from life. While in college, the daughter of a judge is raped and is kidnapped to Memphis. She eventually becomes a sex slave…